BBC - Who Do You Think You Are - Rupert Penry-Jones 3/4

[thetopbird]

There's a lot of judgement on RPJ & his ancestor here.

No-one sitting comfortably in their 21st Century Western existence would ever say that what anyone did in 1857 in India was 'right' and RPJ doesn't: He explicitly says that he doesn't think it was right (13.32). What RPJ does do is try to understand his ancestor in context. I admire this & his considering that if he were in the same situation, he might have behaved in the same way. RPJ's is a very mature & thought-out approach.

[meimeiswan]

Is there a way to get the audio in sync?

[criskity]

4:29 In the background you can hear the call of the male Asian koel (Eudynamys scolopaceus).

[teufelstaub]

Honestly,when Thomas' quote begins "why, dear old woman,I was dodging about the Ganges..."it sounds very much like an tense,exasperated tone with a wry atempt towards humor he knows doesn't exist on either side of the conflict;this being Victorian era language,attitudes and stiff upper lip,etc.Mr.Johnstone sounds like a lovely man who got caught up in a dreadful series of events.Soldiers often are.

[czarnamira]

I disagree. He clearly wasn't impressed but his reaction was measured. He neither condoned nor completely condemned the behaviour. That may be an issue for some but what he says makes sense - try to imagine yourself in that situation (where innocents were slaughtered on both sides) and how can you know you wouldn't do something terrible? Besides everyone has ancestors that behaved badly, most of us don't learn about them in the public eye.

[brownrice0]

...how is he callous? He's not happy that his ancestor might have thought of the rebels as "vermin". Colonialists did not use kid gloves to rule the conquered.....nothing changes even today.... might is right......anyway his ancestor got his comeuppance. Live by the sword die by disease or the sword. Take your pick......

[rainstormwind]

Completely callous and peculiar how Rupert completely ignored that his 4x removed grandfather confessed in writing that he was "taking treasures from the natives" and "burning villages now and then just for sport". He could not be honest enough to recognise the inhumanity in his ancestor. Self-interest is such a powerful and incorrigible driver. Even when the researcher re-reads the horrific sentence, Rupert makes the slippery excuse of "revenge".

[stormyweathers08]

Wow! Your gr8 gr8 gr8 gr8 grandfather was part of an army which ransacked villages which rose against foreign/colonial rule. Yeap !You should definitely be proud of him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[piyush942004]

This documentary guy is a racist dog>

[04loree]

Thanks a lot for the upload.

[GirLInSecondLife]

No reaction at all to "he burned villages for sport?" Strange.